Blazing Saddles opened in theaters 40 years ago and it has secured a place on many lists of the best comedy movies of all time. It also happens to be one of the most offensive.

Included in our fascinating facts tribute are the truth behind Mongo’s horse punch and the one joke Mel thought was a bit to risque for audiences at the time.

It’s hard to imagine that a film as politically incorrect as Blazing Saddles would have even had a chance at being released by studio as big as Warner Brothers today. The film targets nearly every demographic with politically incorrect jokes aimed at African-Americans, Jews, Native Americans, homosexuals, not to mention rape jokes and animal cruelty. Luckily, Mel Brooks had final cut on the film and all that great offensive stuff was left in for our viewing pleasure.

1. The film had several titles. When Brooks was first approached about the film by CMA executive David Begelman the treatment by Richard Zanuck and David Brown was known as Tex X. The movie would then be changed to Black Bart before finally being called Blazing Saddles. The poster for Black Bart was posted in the background when Hedley Lamarr is on location at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

2. Hedy Lamarr sued because of Hedley Lamarr. Actress Hedy Lamarr wasn’t happy with the character’s name similarity and sued Mel Brooks over the use of her name. The dispute was settled out of court and Brooks was able to keep Hedley in the film.

Via Getty Image

3. First time farts. According to the movie’s DVD commentary, Blazing Saddles marks the first time a fart recording had been used in cinema. Mel Brooks came up with the idea after noticing that cowboys in westerns were always consuming lots of black coffee and baked beans. A deadly combination around the campfire if there ever was one.

Those fart noises were made by using a little soap and the old stand-by of putting one’s hand under their armpit.

4. Governor LePetomane was named after a “flatulence artist.” The character of Governor LePetomane was named after 19th century French performer, Joseph Pujol, whose stage name was “Le Pétomane.” Famous for his abdominal muscles, his stage name combines the French verb péter, “to fart” with the -mane suffix, meaning “-maniac,” thus giving us “fartomaniac”. Supposedly he could blow out candles from two feet away.

5. Bart drawing his gun upon himself stemmed from Brooks’ childhood. The scene was based upon an childhood incident where Brooks had stolen some gum and a toy water pistol from a drugstore. Upon being caught by the store clerk, Brooks pulled his stolen water pistol on the clerk in an attempt to back out of the store.

6. Brooks only gave the studio one of the cuts they wanted. The studio pushed for many cuts because of offensive language, but in the end Brooks only cut one scene from the film: Lily and Bart are in a dark room and Bart says, “You’re sucking on my arm.”

8. Burton Gilliam had hesitation at first about using the N-word. Understandably, Gilliam was uncomfortable about using the N-word to refer to Cleavon Little. To ease tensions, Little pulled Gilliam aside and assured him that it was okay before jokingly adding, “If I thought you would say those words to me in any other situation we’d go to fist city but this all fun. Don’t worry about it.”

9. Mel Brooks offered John Wayne a role in the film. According to IMDB, Wayne and Brooks crossed paths on the Warner Brothers lot and Wayne remarked to Brooks that he’d heard about the western parody. Brooks gave Wayne a copy of the script the following day and offered him a role, but Wayne turned it down saying, “Naw, I can’t do a movie like that, but I’ll be first in line to see it!”

Via Getty Image

10. The majority of the movie was written on the 6th floor of 666 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Brooks said that the movie cost about $2.5 million to make and at the end of the day he netted around $50k for writing and directing. He and the other writers were sure that the movie would be a bust because of the ominous location they worked out of, and would typically work until around midnight then go out for Chinese food.